Distinguishing between dengue fever and rash fever

Dengue fever is increasing rapidly, occurring in most provinces and cities across the country. Meanwhile, at this time, rash fever is still appearing, how to distinguish?

Pathogens

There are many different diseases and pathogens of rash fever, but in general there are fever and rash. The main rash fevers in our country are measles caused by the measles virus, Rubella caused by the Rubella virus and diseases caused by Rickettssia, of which the most common in Vietnam is scrub typhus. The transmission method of measles and Rubella is through the respiratory tract, while scrub typhus is transmitted by red mites.

Dengue fever (DF), the causative agent is the Dengue virus, the disease is transmitted from sick people to healthy people who have not yet acquired immunity to the Dengue virus by mosquitoes. There are two species of mosquitoes that transmit DF: the Aedes mosquito and the Asian tiger mosquito.

Recognize dengue fever and rash fever

Dengue fever is a dangerous epidemic. The more mosquitoes that transmit the disease, the faster the disease spreads if people do not have immunity against dengue fever. If dengue fever, especially in children, is not detected and treated promptly, it will lead to many dangerous complications, even death.

Dengue fever usually has a high fever lasting 3-4 days, cough, runny nose, body aches, pain in the eye sockets, vomiting and possibly diarrhea. The fever in dengue fever is difficult to reduce with paracetamol in the first 3 days and when the fever begins to decrease, bleeding will begin, manifested as skin congestion (flushed skin, dry, bright red lips... due to blood concentration), petechiae under the skin, bleeding gums or nosebleeds, red eyes and often accompanied by vomiting, cold hands and feet.

Usually from the 3rd day, the disease progresses severely, especially in children, so if not diagnosed early and treated promptly, there is a risk of worsening due to shock or damage to other organs.

Petechiae in dengue fever.

For roseola, most cases begin with intermittent high fever (body temperature can rise to 39 - 40 degrees Celsius) and appear with cough, sore throat, runny or stuffy nose, fatigue, possibly vomiting and red rash. The lymph nodes in the head, face, and neck are often swollen, painful, visible or palpable. The conjunctiva is red, inflamed, watery... If the cause of the fever is a gastrointestinal virus, digestive disorders may soon appear (loose stools, mucus, no blood and vomiting after eating). Most roseola cases from the 4th day onwards, the patient usually has no fever, can eat, the skin may have a rash for 3 - 5 days and then disappear.

To distinguish dengue fever from rash fever, the simplest way is to use the thumb and index finger on the same side to stretch the skin area with red dots (erythema) or congested skin. If the red dot disappears and you let go, the red color will immediately recover, it is rash fever. If you still see tiny dots or after 2 seconds the red color reappears, it is dengue fever (this is the sign of pressing the finger or the time to recover the skin color in diagnosing dengue fever). The two criteria to consider dengue fever are sudden high fever and bleeding. If possible, a blood test will show that white blood cells may decrease, platelets decrease significantly, and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate increases.

What should be noted when having dengue fever?

You should not think that if you have had dengue fever once, you will not get it again, because dengue fever in our country has 4 different serotypes. If you have one type, you will not get that type the next time, but you can still get one of the remaining 3 types.

When having dengue fever, you must be very careful when using antipyretics. You should only use single paracetamol (no other combinations), do not use aspirin, efferalgan, etc. It is best to apply a cool compress to the forehead, armpits, and groin to reduce the fever. If you use single paracetamol, you must also monitor it closely because, after a few days of high fever, the body temperature may begin to decrease. If you continue using antipyretics, it will be dangerous for the patient.

Some authors advise that when having a high fever in dengue fever, you should not immediately transfuse fluids because it is easy to get shocked (especially protein) because the body is reacting strongly (high fever) to fight the virus. It is best to compensate for water and electrolytes lost due to high fever by using oral rehydration solution (ORS), but the medicine must be mixed according to instructions (a 5.63g orange ORS packet added to 200ml of boiled water to cool). In addition, you should drink more orange juice, fresh lemon, fruit juice (watermelon,...).

If there are any unusual signs, take the patient to the hospital immediately, especially children (cold hands and feet, cold, damp skin, restlessness, abdominal pain, weak pulse, little urine, low or clamped blood pressure).

According to Zing.vn